


We've Got Chemistry

by DeceitfulHonesty



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, HSAU, High School, Science Class, Tutoring, bioquake, skimmons - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 15:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5502230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeceitfulHonesty/pseuds/DeceitfulHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy is notorious for setting her science projects on fire so Jemma is brought in to be her lab partner and keep her from burning the school down (and hopefully lower the teacher's blood pressure).</p><p>Written for the prompt "I accidentally set the science project on fire"</p>
            </blockquote>





	We've Got Chemistry

Everybody knew when Daisy Johnson had science class. Not because anyone really cared about her schedule, but because every B day between 10:30 and 11:30, the fire alarms would go off, followed by a terse announcement that it was a false alarm. It was becoming more reliable than their actual clocks.

  
Sure enough, while Jemma was taking fervent notes on the Shakespeare play they were analyzing, the fire alarm started blaring. Between the shrill screeches of the alarm, Jemma could hear the entire class’s collective sigh of frustration as they waited for the follow-up ‘please remain in your seats’ announcement. Which never came.

  
After a few minutes, the teacher figured that this was either a poorly timed fire drill or there was an actual need to evacuate, so he began to line everyone up for their ‘swift, but orderly walk’ to their designated meeting spot outside.

  
Jemma groaned, along with the rest of the class, but followed the instructions to leave all her things in the class room. Which she quickly regretted when she remembered that it was December and, therefore, absolutely freezing outside. They ran through roll call, apparently as slowly as possible, while Jemma bounced her knees to keep from freezing any appendages off, sprinted back into the building when they were given the all-clear.

  
The teacher finally showed back up to the classroom, while everyone was still grumbling about the cold and rubbing their arms to ward off the lingering chill. He explained that the only reason they had all been evacuated this time was because the lab’s fire extinguisher had finally run out and no one had replaced it (which was an egregious oversight if any of the maintenance staff knew the history of that class). He then settled into his desk and decided to let them have the rest of the period free.

  
Jemma, not being one to waste precious time, cracked open her tattered copy of _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ and began reading through the next chapter.

  
Over the din of the classroom the intercom crackled to life.

  
“ _Mr. Jones, could you please send Jemma Simmons down to the office_?” the bored voice of the receptionist asked.

  
Jemma jerked up from her book and glanced to her teacher, who gave her a shrug and gestured to the door. Jemma gathered up her things and began her march down to the office. Her mind started to race to all the worst possible scenarios that they would need her.   
She was still halfway down the hall from the principal’s office when she heard yelling. That was strange in itself because Principal Coulson rarely raised his voice. She got a bit closer before she could make out the words.

  
“—I could understand when you were working on chemical changes, but this? You were doing a dissection! How on Earth did you set a dead frog on fire?” Coulson shouted.

  
The door was slightly ajar, so Jemma in her endless curiosity, peered around the corner. The notorious Daisy Johnson was sitting in the chair across from Coulson’s desk, eyes fixed on the ground, while Coulson yelled and Dr. Banner, the science teacher, pinched the bridge of his nose.

  
Jemma lightly knocked on the door when there was a pause in the shouting. Coulson immediately looked relieved to see her.

  
“Thank god. Johnson, go wait in the hall, please. Simmons, come in,” Coulson ordered.

  
Daisy hopped up out of her seat and shoved past Jemma into the hall, keeping her head low, while Jemma sidled into her vacated chair.

  
“Is everything alright, Mr. Coulson?” she asked quietly.

  
Coulson massaged his temples for a moment before responding, “Sort of. I need to ask a big favor of you.” He settled back into his desk and composed himself before continuing, “You have the highest grades in your class, especially in the sciences. Dr. Banner here says you would probably test into a higher level class if we offered one, so this is a difficult request. I’m asking you to transfer into the remedial course to be Daisy’s lab partner, tutor her, and, basically, keep her away from anything flammable.”

  
That was surely not what Jemma was expecting from this visit. She just sat there, rather dumbfounded for a moment, while she tried to think on an excuse.

  
“Sir, I—uh. I’m in the AP level for that class. I could really use the college credit—,” she stammered.

  
“We’re aware of that. We will be making arrangements so you can do the homework for the AP class, but the lab and classwork for the remedial class,” Coulson responded.

  
“But, I—”

  
“Please, Jemma,” Dr. Banner jumped in, “I can’t have her make chlorine gas in the classroom again.”

  
“Again?!”

  
Dr. Banner just nodded gravely. Jemma never was one to refuse a teacher. This better get her one hell of a recommendation letter for college. Jemma reluctantly agreed. They spent a few minutes rearranging her schedule and notifying her other teachers of the switch before Jemma was allowed to leave.

  
As she left the office, Jemma’s eyes landed on Daisy, leaning against the lockers on the opposite wall, and picking at her fingernails. She caught Jemma looking and gave her a shy wave, before Coulson shouted for her to get back in the office and she scrambled in to meet him. As soon as Daisy was out of sight she groaned and smacked her forehead against a random locker. She was not looking forward to this situation.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
“So, I just put this in here, right?”

  
“GOOD LORD NO!”

  
Jemma lurched across the lab table and grabbed Daisy’s wrist, narrowly stopping her from pouring an entire test tube of ethanol into the flask of nitric acid on the table. Jemma swore she heard the class let out a collective breath as she yanked the tube out of Daisy’s hand.

  
“First of all, we need to measure the chemicals before we start mixing them. Second, nitric acid should never be mixed with an organic solvent, unless you’re planning on blowing out all the windows,” Jemma lectured.

  
Daisy huffed and threw up her arms in frustration, “Then why are we using them both for this experiment?”

  
Jemma bit back the lengthy explanation that she was sure would be ignored anyway. She had been in the process of explaining the procedure for the experiment when Daisy had started trying to brew up some toxic mess.

  
This tutoring thing was not going very well. Daisy started as an eager enough student, probably due to her lecture from Coulson, but she quickly devolved into excessive questioning of everything. This would be a good thing if her questions were actually relevant to learning anything, not “Why are we making this thing if we’re all going to dump it down the drain?” or “Isn’t this supposed to be an experiment? Shouldn’t we see what happens when these get mixed with our own eyes?” or “How much of our tuition goes to buying potentially poisonous chemicals every year and how is the PTA okay with it?”

  
If anything, Jemma thought she was getting worse. Daisy had seemed to be improving (meaning nothing had caught fire since Jemma transferred), but as soon as Jemma thought she might be able to transfer back into her AP class, she started going downhill again.   
Dr. Banner clapped his hands to get the class’s attention, “Okay everyone, 5 minutes left of class so start putting all your chemicals away. Make sure everything gets in the proper,” he leveled his gaze at Daisy, “containers. If we corrode the pipes again, maintenance is going to have our asses.”

  
Jemma waved Daisy away as she started gathering up the chemicals, dumping them in their designated waste bins, and rinsing all the glassware. She figured it was easier to just not have Daisy underfoot for this part.

  
When she finished up, she noticed Daisy still loitering by the lab table fidgeting with her notebooks, while the rest of the class had filed out.

  
“Is there something you needed, Daisy?” Jemma asked.

  
“Uh, kinda,” she admitted, “I’m still having a bit of trouble with this chemical equations thing, so I was wondering if we could meet up this weekend to work on them?”

  
Jemma started a bit, “Oh. Of course, I should be free this weekend.”

  
Daisy’s face lit up, “Great.”

  
Jemma smirked a bit, “I didn’t think you were even interested in doing the homework,” she teased while gathering up her books.   
“It helps when I’ve got the cutest scientist in the school helping me.”

  
Jemma tripped over her own feet and her books sprawled across the table again.

  
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

  
“What? It’s the truth. The accent helps,” Daisy winked and swung her bag over her shoulder, “I’ll buy you coffee or something. It’s the least I can do to thank you for helping me not flunk out of this class. I think Doctor Banner would quit if he had to deal with me for another year.”

  
Jemma nodded slightly in agreement, still stuck on Daisy’s prior statement.

  
Daisy plowed on, despite Jemma’s silence, “So...how about Saturday? We can meet up at the Starbucks down the street at 2?”

  
“Uh, sure.”

  
Daisy flashed Jemma a bright grin again, “Awesome, it’s a date! See you then!”

  
She then bustled out of the room to her next class, leaving Jemma slightly stunned.

  
“Wait, what?”

**Author's Note:**

> This one was surprisingly hard to write because I had no idea where I wanted to end it. Also, I nearly failed high school chemistry myself, so I had to do some research. Enjoy!  
> Also posted on my writing tumblr, sad-trash-writing


End file.
